Bones: FOX Unsure About the Future, Promises Meaningful Series Finale

by Cindy McLennan, January 17, 2016

The Bones TV series’ future is in doubt. FOX‘s Dana Walden said, during the TCA winter press tour, that a renewal is uncertain. If the show is to end with this current, 11th season, FOX wants it to go out strong, and satisfy the long-running show’s audience.

“We don’t want this show limping to an ending,” Fox co-chairman and CEO Dana Walden said of the show at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, California on Friday. “We want to send it out with style and class and the way it wants to be wrapped up … I don’t believe any of the practical elements of the production have been delayed. We hope to announce it soon.”

Walden said the network hasn’t “made a decision” yet about just when the show would end, but promised to give producers “plenty of time to write a meaningful ending.”

Stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel need to re-up again, and I hear there have been some preliminary steps in that direction, a promising sign about efforts to extend the procedural. “We wouldn’t do the show without David and Emily,” Walden said after the session.

The decision will come down to 11 or 12 seasons for Bones. “It’s top of next-week business to start talking with the producers about whether this will be the end of its run or if it will go another season,” Walden said.

According to TV Line, the legal issues will not affect the network’s decision to cancel or renew Bones. However, Bones will not continue without both Boreanaz and Deschanel:

Regarding the ongoing legal battle between series leads David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel and 20th Century Fox over Bones profits, Walden said the dispute has “not resolved quite yet,” but noted its outcome would have no impact on the show’s renewal chances.

Walden ruled out the idea of continuing the series without Boreanaz and Deschanel. “We wouldn’t do the show without [both] David and Emily,” she maintained. “This is a conversation [about] continuing the series and announcing it as a final season in the 12th season, or whether we wrap it in the 11th.”

Please, please give us a 12th season of Bones!! If there is not to be a 12th season then at least give us a series finale that gives us fans closure and gives this outstanding series the send off it deserves. Nothing short of spectacular!

I have never missed a single episode since it was first introduced. I love the show! I would LOVE to see it continue on for many years to come!! But, only as stated, must have BOTH Booth & Bones but for me, also add Angela & Hodgins (Jack) and I suppose I’ll say Camille (Cam). I guess if it has end soon, I NEED it to be AFTER (a MOVIE tying up the loose ends?) at the end of the 12th season. PLEASE?

It should have ended last season. Wrap up the personal stories, move on and let them have happy lives, riding into the sunset, leaving The Jeffersonian and the F.B.I. behind. It’s been a great run. Thanks for 10 solid seasons.

I really like this show and it ticks me off that the network is playing with it so much. I agree with Laura C. Leave the show on at a standard time and keep the series going. The stars are awesome and the show has so much going for it and so many story lines to continue for many more seasons. I don’t think it needs to go out with class yet since it isn’t slowing down. The writers can produce great scripts and why not? Ending this show would be a crime. I have heard that one of the… Read more »

I would still watch Bones since I HAVE been since Day One. Booth & Brennan may be the “stars” but the supporting cast is just as good, and I would miss them maybe even more than one or the other (B&B). If the writers hadn’t butchered the show to begin with, and moved it around/pre-empted more than any show I know, it would still be strong. They need to stick to the ORIGINAL formula of B&B & squints using their particular know-how to solve crimes TOGETHER and leave the other baloney alone. Quit moving more squints in and good ones… Read more »